How "healthy" is your diet?

When I was first working out and having a hard time shaving off the "problem area" I had, I easily got discouraged. I couldn't figure out what to do.

What helped quite a bit was changing my diet. I was already eating "healthy" so to speak, but it was more of a "I'm going to eat this to justify that candy bar later" kind of diet.

Not going to cut it.

I then decided to remove most of, if not all sugar from my diet....then I could really say I was eating "healthy". Sugar has a lot of calories anyway and seems to slow me down in my workouts. When I did cut it out of my diet, I started seeing pretty good results after workouts, but was still having a hard time getting to where I wanted to be with the "problem area" which if you are wondering, is my butt and upper thighs....probably considered to be the biggest "problem area" for most women. I've heard it from several of my friends, it's a big focus in media for women, and I see more women working on that area more than anything else at the gym.

I had no idea until I looked for it, but there are so many products out there that have "no sugar added". I was surprised at how many I found! There is even sugar free honey!

Here is my general diet: I don't eat anything with more than 5-8 grams of sugar in it and it is usually natural sugar. I don't use "I can't believe it's not butter" anymore after reading several articles about how bad it can be for you--they compared it to eating plastic. Feel free to Google that one. I don't eat anything with more than .5 grams of SATURATED fat unless it has a lot of protein or dairy like cheese, in which I justify up to 1.5 grams more, because protein is so crucial when building muscle. I always try to stick to the serving size. I always try to have a protein shake (Amplified whey bolic extreme 60- great protein powder!) after my workout to retain the muscle I just worked on. I'll post the recipe for our "Fields Shake" later. ;)

I'll also post later exactly what I'm eating to give a better idea to those who don't want to always be checking labels...even though it's very fascinating to see how much fat and sugar are in the products we use!

I wanted more from my workouts and felt like something was holding me back. Jared, my husband, went to GNC for me to get some more vitamins that I ran out of ("be WHOLESOME Health and Beauty Vitapak"---AWESOME STUFF!) and while he was there, he spoke with the rep there about my little concern. Jared later told me that the N.O. EXPLODE pre-workout was making my body retain water weight....SO NOT what I wanted. They recommended a dietary supplement series I just started at the beginning of the week called Physio-Burn, Pro-sculpt, and Meta Ignite and I'm not sure if it's in my head, but I swear that "area" is looking so much better already. I feel better when using the pre-workout compared to the N.O. Explode, and it has suppressed cravings for junk food or just more food I sometimes have during the day. I feel a lot better with these products! Yeah!

I still believe the biggest key is to effective workouts is not eating sugar or as much fatty foods. It's all around us and it's hard to stay away from. Here are some snacks that I eat to suppress the temptation to eat junk food (and I carry them around wherever I go):


* Cinnamon or Cocoa Almonds
* Nut mix
* Wheat thins
* Grape tomatoes
* Carrots
* Fruit and cottage cheese
* Nature Valley Granola Bars
* Annie's Organic bunny crackers (Costco or Smiths)
* Chips and Salsa
* Chips and Hummas
* Healthy Muffins (I will post this recipe with the protein shake later)
* Raisens
* Craisens
* Jerkey (sometimes- a little fatty)
* All Natural frozen fruit bars

Okay and just for the LADIES...during that time of month it's super hard to stay away from the fatty foods so here is a slightly healthy list of snacks :)

* Kettle Chips
* Low fat "Healthy" Kettle Corn (Orange box)
* Mentos
* Tic Tacs
* Cheese Tortilla (But add peppers, beans and corn)
* 1 cup icecream (gotta have dairy anyway right ;)
* 1 small piece of dark chocolate
* Fresh fruit with small angel cakes from store with strawberry glaze (also a great treat when friends are over     so you don't have to tell them why you can't eat their dessert).

What motivates you?

If we're being honest, it's not always easy to be motivated. Many things in life have a way of discouraging us. Comparing ourselves to others can have a dramatic effect on how we feel about everything in life; especially how we look because that's what others see and I think it's safe to say most people care what others think....which can be good and bad (See # 3).

What motivates me is to mix things up and keep things exciting:

1.)  I HAVE to have my music while running or working out. NEW PLAY LISTS keeps things fresh. Music motivates me to push harder where I couldn't if it were silent and boring. Listening to others gossip or catch up in the "meat market" at that gym is not exactly my forte...unless it's with my husband. :) And I LOVE the song "The fighter" by Gym Class Heroes because whenever I'm working out I feel like I'm "The fighter" and I can conquer whatever workout I do or conquer the sly remarks I get from others about me going to the gym. Corny? Hey, whatever gets the adrenaline pumping!

(I'll include my latest playlist at the end).

2.) NEW GYM CLOTHES/SHOES. I used to not care what clothes I wore while running and somewhat agreed with those who asked "why do people 'dress up' to go to the gym?" Those who asked this and talked about that subject, did not actually go to the gym. It wasn't until I went to the gym that I realized why people "dress up" to go to the gym. Even if you go to a gym where there is not a "meat market", it still feels good and is fun to go out an buy and put on something new!

3.) COMPETITION. I am extremely competitive with myself. And I'm not going to lie...with other girls at the gym. If I see a girl that has a hard core A, arms or legs; you can bet I will be working on that for most of my workouts throughout the week.

4.) TRYING OUT NEW CLASSES AT THE GYM. This is originally the reason why I wanted to go to the gym. I fell in love with Zumba, Power Pump, Dirty Dancing, Hip Hop, and Kickboxing. I tried out at least 8 classes each week for the first couple of months I started going to the gym (which was October of last year). I couldn't get enough of it!

5.) TRY A NEW FITNESS GENRE. I went from long distance running before getting into the gym (to lose my baby weight), to trying out the classes at the gym (but still doing some races on the side), to now training for a fitness competition in the spring and training for obstacle races like the Tough Mudder in October and the Sparta Race for next June. And I'm more into 5k's now because I've found this to be my best race. My PB was in the Memorial Race this year at 23:08. That got me pumped for more short intense workouts (especially after I realized I lost a lot of my muscle I built up this whole last year in the Wasatch Back Ragnar-which is a long distance relay race where I ran almost 20 miles). If you are into running and are getting bored, try different races. :)

6.) NEW SUPPLEMENTS. I love trying out new energy and protein supplements. I love seeing what helps me reach my full potential in my workouts AND I believe it's good to switch supplements up anyway because, even thought it's not proven and it's just my opinion, I figured using one type for a long time could probably do damage in the long run.

7.) GET A WORKOUT PARTNER. Sometimes the only way to get your butt out of bed in the morning is having common courtesy and knowing that someone else got out of bed early and is relying on you to as well. Knowing that others are experiencing the same exercise is important to some people or just having someone there to chat with or whatever can be relieving and/or motivating.

8.) CREATING A NEW WORKOUT ROUTINE. Going along with trying out a new fitness genre, it depends on what results you want and are going for. I will get to this in a few posts, but doing a little bit of research online or asking others can help you customize your workout.

9.) STARTING A HEALTHY DIET!! This accounts for at least 70-80ish% of my workout/results. I will be doing MANY posts on this with recipes, snacks, meals, and shakes I use.

10.) TRIMMING DOWN. Who doesn't want to look good in a swimsuit or having a rocking body for their spouse? Or fit their clothes better? After having spent a vacation in Cabo, Mexico with my husband, I REALLY wanted to look better for our next trip. :)

There you go. Ten reasons or ideas to motivate you to either start working out or work out harder!

The biggest thing to keep in mind and is something I am constantly telling myself is JUST DO IT! NO EXCUSES!!!

So, now I want to know WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?!

Playlist as promised:

Rihanna - Where have you been

              -We found love

Davin DeGraw -Not over you
Karmin  -  Broken hearted

Cobra Starship  - You make me feel
David Guetta – Turn me on
Calvin harris – let’s go   
Carly Jepson – Call me maybe
Gym class Heros – The fighter
Usher  - Scream
Ellie Goulding  - Lights

LMFAO – Shot Shot shot
              - sexy and I know it
Havanah Brown – we run the night
Maroon 5  - payphone
                - moves like Jagger
Katy Perry – last Friday night
                - firework
                - teenage dream
Pitbull – hey baby
The wanted – glad you came
ludicris – tonight
Flor rida – wild ones
Chris brown – forever
Train – drive by
Lady Gaga – just dance

Ke$ha – We r who we r

Lets do this!

First of all; I am just an amateur "gym rat", but I'd like to share some of the things I have learned from other trainers, research, and personal experience. And I've often thought how I wanted to write down my thoughts I've had about my training so in a way this is a journal for me.

How The Sweat Was Run was a team name my friends and I came up with for the Wasatch Ragnar Relay for this year, but were on the waiting list all year until it was too late to get a team together and/or already joined other teams. I didn't want such a fun name to go to waste; hence the blog name!


I decided to create a blog after having many people ask me for tips and advice for training. I wish I had time and complete knowledge to train all those that asked me. I would love to make a career out of it, but I have 2 kids that keep me running and many other things in life I love to do that is time consuming...not that a blog isn't time consuming, but it's less so than training people personally and is done out of the comfort of my own home and at whatever time of day I want. :)

I have always had a passion for life. I LOVE going to the gym. I am at the gym almost every day and sometimes twice a day. I love to learn new things especially fitness related which is why I thought I'd share what I've learned so far from trainers, my husband (who is has a Health and Wellness major, went to law school-very smart, always re-evaluating our workouts to be as efficient as possible- is kind of my personal trainer and a gym rat with me), friends, other "gym rats", research, and personal experience.

I thought this would be a neat way to go through this journey with other readers/athletes/gym goers. I am simply an amateur "trainer" but would love to pass on my personal experience and hear from others what they've learned too. This is a blog about everything fitness related because that's what I do. I love the gym, doing races, obstacle races, hiking, climbing, eating healthy, etc. Let's do this!